OT: The FBI Hacked My Computer

dogscoff · #26 August 5th, 2002, 02:06 PM

I agree, it's insane. I mean, what's next? Now that the thin end of the wedge is in, how long before every letter and parcel we send is opened and scanned at the sorting office? How long before we're all required to have mini-GPS locators implanted? How long before the police kick down your door because they found "criminal" genes in your DNA?

People just don't seem to care though: The amount of brainless morons I see on TV reacting to news like this with comments like "Well if you've got nothing to hide then you've got nothing to worry about" ... Yeah, that's fine as long as you have complete and utter faith in every single individual and organisation with access to these powers. Jeez, what if some nazi like Jean Marie LePen got into power here? ****, imagine if Hitler or Stalin had had the technology to monitor every bit of correspondance, every request for information...

I just wish the majority of the general public (in this country and, I suspect, everywhere else) wasn't so damned ignorant. Literacy and numeracy is all very important, but I really think schools should be obliged to teach things like philosophy and citizenship (ie rights/ justice/ responsibility). Of course if the government did that, they'd probably never have gotten this law passed. Maybe apathy is the price we pay for affluence: Bread & circuses...

The really sad thing is that the government can't even be honest about their reasons for bringing these laws in. Do you really think they'll catch any more pirates, terrorists and paedophiles this way? All the criminals have to do is use coded Messages rather than plain language. Hell, they probably do already - so what is the real purpose of this legislation? If they said "We want to snoop on your 'net usage because we're a bunch of paranoid, voyeuristic megalomaniacs and we're scared that the internet might actually bring about a change in society that reduces our importance in some way" then at least I might have a tiny bit of respect for them.

*Bastards*

</rant>

I'm really depressed now. It's enough to turn you into a conspiracy theorist. I'm off to the cantina to drown my sorrows...

[ August 05, 2002, 13:10: Message edited by: dogscoff ]